Happy New year !! quotes to inspire...and Developing a blue tone landscape composition

And now we welcome the new year. Full of things that have never been.

Rainer Maria Rilke

Let our New Year's resolution be this: we will be there for one another as fellow members of humanity, in the finest sense of the word.

Goran Persson

 

New Year's Day. A fresh start. A new chapter in life waiting to be written. New questions to be asked, embraced, and loved. Answers to be discovered and then lived in this transformative year of delight and self-discovery. Today carve out a quiet interlude for yourself in which to dream, pen in hand. Only dreams give birth to change.

Sarah Ban Breathnach

A few images...a work in progression for a blue landscape, based on the brazil nut tree; attempting to capture a sense of atmosphere and calm within this image so as to create a reflective mood.
Started with a few sketches for the composition before building up the layers and tones with acrylic washes.
The original work part of a project with The World Land Trust, was in response to our Western ideologies and attitudes of dominance over nature instead of recognising as humans we are part of nature... the destructive impact of man seen for example on eco systems such as deforestation in Brazil... although the Brazil nut tree is conservation protected, it eventually dies as the ecosystem around it is destroyed afflicted by manmade  fires ... It also reveals our on going disconnection from nature, do we see nature as something in opposition to the human species? Something to control?
'We have 54 senses most are disconnected from nature...' We excessively suffer our disorders because we don't connect with our natural senses with natures grace,balance, and the restorative powers that help us to remedy our troubles..http//www.ecopsych.com/insight...
'Let the earth teach us the renewing powers of nature.' Richard Long.
We are suffering from a kind of collective hypnosis' a cultural trance that prevents us from seeing things the way they are.' William Irwin Thompson.
Nature is the solution not the problem yet 3 great challenges to environment are evident climate change, biodiversity collapse, and each generations disconnection from nature...paraphrased from Richard Louvs Children and Nature.
Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal.' Albert Einstien
 One of my great  inspirations is 93 year old Artist Frans Krajcberg who derived his inspiration from the Rain forest in Brazil. His personal insight into the destructive nature of man is born of painful experience; losing his family in the Holocaust. He eventually moved to Brazil from Poland where he experienced nature's restoring effect upon him living for a number of years in the forest... however as deforestation commenced Krajcberg's art emerged in response to man's destructive nature ... he said my work's are my manifest, the fire is death, abyss. The fire will always be with me, the destruction has forms. I am searching for images to scream my revolt.' Krajcberg.
"The first time I wept after the war was in Acre, when I saw all that destruction. I could no longer tolerate man's barbarity once I found nature, and I took refuge in her."
Using trees that had fallen prey to deforestation as his raw material, in the 1970s he began to make engravings and sculptures that echoed like a shout of protest in the forest...www.questia.com › ... › Americas (English Edition) this profound sense of taking refuge in nature expressed by Frans Krajcberg  is an evokative reminder particularly as we see on going debates and issues over the effects of global warming  on our planet.
frans also comments, 'Artistic thinking confirms with sorrow that contemporary society is a commercial machine' frans krajcberg Brazils Eco Sculptor by leon kaplin www.artfocusonline 4/9/07...
Carr in 'The Shallows; What the Internet is doing to our Brains' (2010) comments that time in nature is important as it gives our brains time away from continual multi stimulus and allows it to relax and refresh enabling us to function more effectively cerebrally and intellectually.
Anne frank mentions nature in her diary...by summing up nature's benefit ' the best remedy for those afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere quiet alone with the heavens and nature.'
Image Frans Krajcberg work


Add caption





 http://www.pointdujour-international.com/catalogueFiche.php?idFiche=30464


 go to link on Frans work ....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UoMre6vJDU



 http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/r/rainermari676230.html#KOs1hsroDh2XvyGg.99

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/g/goranperss178599.html#t0VuFWgbdMwfv4Ix.99
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_newyears.html#MUiEI3xMgHyhAjZ7.99


Started to read Naomi Klein's latest book 'This Changes Everything; Capitalism VS  The Climate'...
an apt quote she uses by Victor Hugo over a 180 years ago still reasonates today.... "How sad to think that nature speaks and mankind doesn't listen."